An Impenetrable Fortess
by Clone Number 5
Summary: It feels less like a city and more like a cage. [Smellershot.]


**Note: **_Spoilers for _Lake Laogai.**  
**

**An Impenetrable Fortess**_  
_

_"I have run  
I have crawled  
I have scaled these city walls  
These city walls  
Only to be with you"_

_-I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For_, U2

_-x-_

It is impossible to place it, but there is something about this city that he does not trust. And it's not the bandits that skulk in the shadows, or the half-starved children that peer timidly from behind their exhausted mothers. He's seen these things too many times to let them bother him anymore.

Yet, as the subway car plunges through the tunnel and into the city, dread washes over him. Outside the window, the horizon is suddenly obstructed by the high outer wall that curls around the houses agglomerated into tight sections.

It feels less like a city and more like a cage.

_-x-_

Their new living arrangement is nothing more than a tiny shack with two moldy beds cramped inside. In one corner, a dirty mirror hangs over a tiny basin and table. The other corner may or may not contain an angry creature with terrible body ordor; no one is quite brave enough to check. It's hardly a palace, but for the first time in a long time it's a home where they don't need to live under the threat of a Fire Nation attack.

Jet walks in, drops his bag on a cot, and leaves them staring awkwardly at the remaining empty bed.

_-x-_

"We should probably find jobs," she says reasonably, sitting across from him on the mattress. "Or something."

The air between them suddenly feels awkward without Jet hovering close by. In this strange city, they are no longer suffocated by the antics of their former team mates, or even their leader. Everything that they are trying to leave behind them cannot penetrate through the high walls of Ba Sing Se. At least, not for today. For today, the streets stretch out before them, offering a second chance at a life.

For now, she smiles and the opportunities are endless.

_-x-_

She has taken down platoons, swung through the trees with a blade clenched between her teeth, and juggled a set of knives while sparring with a rogue firebender. He knows that she is more than capable of handling herself.

Still, he can't help but linger a little closer to her as they walk by the leering men that lurk in the alleyways. Just in case.

_-x-_

The streets are teeming with people - tall, short, fat, thin. Faces of all different varieties mingle, arguing and laughing together. A young couple not much older than himself pass, holding hands as they smile at each other.

From the corner of his eye, he sees Smellerbee's small fingers hanging idly at her side and quickly glances at one of the stores.

_Flowers For Sale!_, the sign exclaims.

He runs a palm over his face.

_-x-_

"I'm worried about Jet," she says, for what feels like the millionth time today.

_-x-_

The rest of the walk through Ba Sing Se is a long and awkward one after he accidentally stumbles upon her eyeing a brassier contemplatively.

_-x-_

The city is strangely silent considering the earlier commotion. In the sleeping streets, now deserted, they walk aimlessly in no general direction with no leader, no purpose. In the shadows of the alleyways, old ghosts are beginning to stir. Maybe it was foolish to think that they could ever outrun them.

After all that's happened he can't help but need to reassure himself that he's still here, so he reaches over and carefully brushes the hair away from her eyes.

She turns her head and finds his gaze. His fingers linger on her face.

"I'm sorry," she whispers.

So is he.

_-x-_

Home is a cold, dark place.

They avoid the place as much as possible, but at night when monsterous men slink from underneath their hideaways, and mothers usher their children inside for bed, it is their inevitable harbor. She sleeps fitfully, tossing around in her bed under the clutch of nightmares. One night he wakes to find her shivering under her blanket. He doubts that the shaking has anything to do with a chill, but he drapes his blanket over her just the same and spends the rest of the night holding her trembling fingers in his.

Every morning she wakes up with a determined clench in her jaw.

"We're going to find him."

He picks up his hat and follows her out the door, secretly wishing that they had never come to Ba Sing Se.

_-x-_

"Longshot."

He tries to remember to breathe.

"Longshot," she whispers through tears, already imporing him. The sounds of their dying leader echo through the chamber.

Both of their eyes drift to the arrow in his hand.


End file.
